Falling Angels

In the post-nuclear suburbs of the nineteen-fifties and sixties the Field sisters are growing up under the tyrannical rule of their military-minded father and the stupefied neglect of their sweet, alcoholic mother. A black secret and a ferocious loyalty bind the sisters and bring their story “to a place where laughter seems as unavoidable as it is appropriate.” (The Village Voice)

released as a major motion picture

critical acclaim

“Scrupulously and evocatively wrought, with fully formed characters, Falling Angels brilliantly celebrates the bonding that occurs even in dysfunctional families.”Publishers Weekly

“Barbara Gowdy is a gifted writer.”The New York Times

“The three Field girls slouch toward womanhood in this excellent novel.”Entertainment Weekly

“A dark gem of a novel.”Library Journal

“Gowdy has written a corker: gripping, agonizing and funny.”Literary Review/UK

“This funny, touching novel is reminiscent of early Margaret Atwood but with top-spin.”The Independent on Sunday

“A hard-hitting book that presents all three daughters as fully realized characters. Richly imagined.”The Los Angeles Times

“The discovery of the year.”The Montreal Gazette

“Very few writers have ever tackled the subject on such a sweeping scale; fewer still have ever pulled it off so effectively. Barbara Gowdy is a talent that will have a major impact on what is left of the millennium.”The Toronto Star

“A master conjurer of imagined lives.”The Vancouver Sun

“A dazzling novel: shrewd, tragic and funny all at the same time.”Books in Canada

“Her insights are dead-on and enlightening. This is a compelling and entertaining book. I couldn’t put it down.”The Calgary Herald

“A wonderful book, a tragi-comedy that is virtually unsurpassed.”Sachsische Zeitung

“Raises goose bumps right up until the end.”Die Wienerin

“A breathtaking book.”Bavarian Radio

“Masterly and virtuoso.”North German Radio

“Exquisitely written.”Freudin

Barbara Gowdy

Barbara Gowdy is the author of seven books, including Helpless, The Romantic, The White Bone, Mister Sandman, We So Seldom Look on Love and Falling Angels, all of which have met with widespread international acclaim. A three-time finalist for The Governor General’s Award, two-time finalist for The Scotia Bank Giller Prize, The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, winner of the Marian Engel Award and The Trillium Book Prize, Gowdy has been longlisted for The Man Booker Prize. She has been called “a miraculous writer” by the Chicago Tribune, and in 2005 Harper’s magazine described her as a “terrific literary realist” who has “refused to subscribe to worn-out techniques and storytelling methods.” Born in Windsor, Ontario, she lives in Toronto.